


Riding Out the Storm—The I Love You Job, Part One

by crayonbreakygal



Series: The I Love You Job [1]
Category: Leverage
Genre: F/M, Finally, I Love You, Multi, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:07:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26136223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crayonbreakygal/pseuds/crayonbreakygal
Summary: Epiphanies are a bitch.  Just ask Nate.
Relationships: Alec Hardison/Parker/Eliot Spencer, Sophie Devereaux/Nathan Ford
Series: The I Love You Job [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1897918
Comments: 1
Kudos: 15





	Riding Out the Storm—The I Love You Job, Part One

**Author's Note:**

> OK, so I wrote these out of order, which means there is no chronological time to any of these fics. I have four so far written when it was that either Sophie or Nate says I love you first. This one happens season five. I could totally see Nate waiting to say it, with Sophie saying it first because she was getting impatient.

Riding Out the Storm—The I Love You Job, Part One

Takes place season five

Wait? How did this happen? Was this supposed to happen?

“Oh, bloody hell. I love you,” Sophie screamed back at him.

Nothing came out. No answers. Nate couldn’t even sputter or defend. What was there to defend?

“Ah,” he started.

“You cannot even pretend that this was not going to happen. You bloody well knew that if we so much as kissed that this was going to be the end result,” Sophie yelled back. “This is all your fault.”

His fault? What? What had he done?

“Don’t act like you don’t know what you did? Look at you.”

Look at him? Where was she going with this?

The atmosphere outside chose at that moment to flash lightning across the sky, a roll of thunder in response. Mere moments later, a sheer burst of rain started, pummeling the windows. Then the hail started. Great. Now he was trapped here with her. No escape. Maybe lightning would hit where they were. That might distract her for a moment.

They were trapped until Eliot called them out and told them it was safe. They weren’t in any immediate danger. They just needed to stay put for the time being. Parker and Hardison had the rest of the job handled. Now all they needed to do was wait.

Yanking out his comm, Nate paced back and forth, occasionally pointing Sophie’s way, like he was going to say something in return. He hadn’t worked up the courage yet.

“We, do you, I mean, can we…, why now?”

“I’m in love with an idiot. There it is. Dense, self-serving, idiot.”

Maybe he was a bit dense when it came to things dealing with women and love and relationships. Self-serving? No. Idiot? Depended on who you asked.

“Eliot agrees that you’re an idiot.”

Nate hadn’t noticed that her comm was still in her ear.

“We don’t need an audience.”

“It’s not like they don’t know our every move. Oh, yeah, sorry about that. They said they really don’t want to know our every move because Hardison is now calling us nasty yet again.”

Hands on his hips, Nate gestured for her to remove the comm. Sophie complied finally, making a grand gesture of removing the comm and placing it in her pocket. Only Sophie Devereaux would elevate taking out an earbud to the next level.

“Thank you. Now…”

“Wait one second. Are you even going to acknowledge…”

“Just give me a moment.”

“This isn’t some kind of…”

Another bolt of lightning slashed across the sky, followed by thunder that sounded like it was right above them. Sophie squealed as the sound reverberated throughout the room. Before Nate could make it to her, the lights went out, plunging them into darkness.

“Dammit,” Nate shouted as he ran into something really sharp.

“Just, hold up.”

Sophie’s phone shone as she turned it on. Another flash of light, followed by a thunderbolt so loud, even Nate made a noise. Sophie’s phone ended up on the ground, the light immediately disappearing. Nate reached into his pocket and grabbed his. As he frantically pressed the on button, nothing happened.

“Forgot to charge it again?”

“These new phones suck. Dammit, Hardison.”

“He’s not here to hear you swear,” Sophie pointed out.

He could hear her shuffling around, attempting to find her phone in the darkness. Edging closer to the sound, Nate almost tripped over her as she bent over sweeping her hands against the ground.

“Don’t step on me.”

“Sorry.”

Placing his comm back into his ear, all he got was static.

“Earbuds aren’t working correctly.”

“Dammit, Hardison,” Sophie repeated, parroting his scorn for their resident guru of all things electronic. 

“He’ll get it back online. We just have to wait.”

“Found it. Uh oh.”

Nate didn’t like the sound of that uh oh.

“What?” he forcefully asked her.

“Screen’s cracked. I can’t make a call.”

Nate could see a bit of light escaping from the damaged phone, enough where he could finally see exactly where Sophie stood. Another flash of light followed by the crash had Sophie jumping closer to him.

“I hate storms.”

Taking her hand in his, he rubbed her palm and wrist, hoping that it would help calm her. He could feel her pulse beat wildly. Was it because of their argument or from the weather?

“Somewhat romantic,” Nate blithely answered back.

“We’re trapped in some old, decrepit office building while waiting on Eliot to give us the go-ahead to make sure that those goons that you ticked off don’t come find us. And you’re quite concerned that I decided to tell you exactly how I feel, which is messing up your plans, whatever they might be.”

Sophie had pulled her hand away from him to use air quotes, even though there was no need to do that. What little light was available didn’t give him enough information to actually see that she did that, but he could guess it would be her reaction. She’d taken to being quite sarcastic lately, definitely when dealing with him.

“I don’t have any so-called plans.”

Sophie slapped him on the arm. “Yes, you do. You always have a plan. Hell, you have a plan for every single day what we are going to accomplish. Don’t tell me you don’t have a plan, darling. I know you too well.”

“Well, I mean, yes. There’s a plan in place for some things.”

If those things included her and what they were going to do with the rest of their lives, of course, he’d been thinking about those plans. And the contingencies that always had to be thought out. So yes, there was a plan. Or two. Or ten. It all depended on what she would do or wanted to do.

“I messed up your plans, didn’t I?”

Did she? Was he expecting her to declare her love for him right at that instant? Instead of answering her, he grabbed her hand and pulled her to him.

“You have been messing up my plans since day one.”

He could feel her smile against his lips. This wasn’t one of those frantic kisses that they often engaged in when they first started whatever this was. 

“Why do you have to do that to me?” Sophie asked when he finally let her up for air.

“Do what?”

“Make me forget what I was saying. Yes, I remember now. I love you, you bloody idiot. Now, what are you going to do about that? It’s no longer working together for five years, sleeping together for two anymore.”

“I mean, we are still working together and occasionally we sleep, among other things.”

Nate prepared for her to possibly slug him this time. Only she buried her hand in his hair and yanked his head down just slightly. Her kiss had him panting a bit when they came up for air again.

“You can’t say it, can you.”

“I, I can say it. It’s just, well…”

“Oh, I see.” Sophie immediately pulled away from him, dropping his hands from around her waist.

“Oh, no. You don’t see. This isn’t what you think.”

“What do I think, pray tell? Tell me what I think?”

Another slash of lightning showed the look of anger that was on Sophie’s face, along with a possible tear or two forming in her large eyes. Oh boy, he thought. I’ve really fucked this up.

“No, no. It’s just I was surprised,” Nate told her, attempting to lighten the situation so that she wouldn’t be tempted to strangle him where he stood.

“You? Surprised? Oh, you’re right. You don’t do emotions. Stunted emotionally, I think. Am I right? Well, you need to realize that I am not waiting for you. Remember what I said, that first year?”

“That you wouldn’t wait around for me forever? Yes, it’s etched into my brain.”

Dammit, was she going to break up with him? And why did he feel like a teenager right at that moment, not knowing what to do and what to feel? 

Nate wondered how epiphanies hit people. Was it like all of a sudden, the human body just decides that it has figured out something so profound, that everything becomes so clear, it hits you like you’ve been sucker-punched to the gut? Because that’s what he was feeling right at that moment. He wanted to say it was a good feeling because it should have been. It had to be. He was standing directly in front of the woman that helped make him whole again.

“Dammit, Sophie.”

Nate startled her by grabbing her arm again, just to make sure she didn’t bolt before he could say his peace.

“I love you. I worship you. You’re crazy to love me back, you know that?”

“Oh, so now I’m crazy?”

Instead of letting her rant, he swooped in and turned her head and fit his body against hers, ignoring the storm outside and the storm that had to be brewing in her mind. He hoped that he wiped part of that declaration from her mind so that she would concentrate on the love part and not the crazy part.

It must have worked because she wasn’t letting up. He wished he could see more than a few feet in front of him. The dirty, abandoned office building wasn’t exactly prime material for declaring one’s love for another human being. It would have to do.

A few feet away, the shape of a desk spurred him on. He hoped that it would hold her weight because it looked like it had seen better days. Easing her up on top of it, he settled into the middle of her parted thighs. He heard a clunk of her shoes on the ground as his mouth traveled to her shoulder and neck. It wasn’t too long before she had his belt buckle in her hands, yanking it until it gave way. 

“You worship me?” Sophie asked as his hands slid her underwear down and off.

“Yes,” he groaned as he thrust forward, moving the desk slightly.

Lowering her down to the desktop, he buried his head in her cleavage since that’s where her hands had maneuvered him. 

Since that epiphany had hit him square in the chest, he decided the best thing to do was to ride it out and think later. He didn’t need to think when he was doing what he was doing. The desk moved the harder he thrust. The more he did that, the more Sophie moaned in his ear.

“That’s it. Right there. Oh, Nate. I love you. God, keep doing that.”

A few more minutes of her declaring her love to him once again had him finally shouting her name in triumph, her along with him.

“I love you, Sophie Devereaux.”

“Dammit, Nate,” Nate heard as he looked down at Sophie. That wasn’t her voice.

Next, all he could hear was Eliot’s growling on top of Parker’s cackling like a lunatic.

“You won’t believe what just happened? Nate told Sophie he loved her. Yay.”

At least they’d left the room to give the two of them some privacy.

“Oh dear,” was all Sophie could say before she burst out laughing. “Darling, your pants are down past your knees.”

That meant that both Eliot and Parker had seen his bare ass briefly on the last lightning flash.

“Shit.”

“Oh, come on. Parker is so focused on what you just said, she won’t remember your nakedness whatsoever.”

“Put your clothes on, Nate. Now,” Eliot commanded from the hallway.

It took them a few minutes to straighten themselves up.

“I’m a mess,” Sophie declared as they found their way to the door of the room.

“So, there they were. He shouted that he loved her right in the middle of the storm.”

Hardison looked at Parker, not believing what she was saying. Nate shouting at Sophie that he loved her. On what planet?

“Oh, and his bare ass in the air.”

“Wait? What?”

Eliot shook his head as he put his beer down on the counter.

“Well, you know.”

“Yeah, I know. I don’t wanna know. But I know.”

Parker’s eyes opened wide. “Whatttt?”

“Let’s just say they are not discrete at all.”

“You didn’t?” Eliot proclaimed.

“Luckily that time it was Sophie’s ass. I do not want to see Nate’s.”

“Hey, not fair,” Parker declared as she took a sip of Eliot’s beer.

“So, you wanna see Sophie’s ass? Girl, what are you saying?”

“I’ve seen everyone else’s.”

Both Eliot and Hardison looked at her.

“Really?” Eliot asked.

“Well, I mean, yeah,” Hardison finished. “I mean, I’ve seen it all. Not all, just little snippets. Iwouldliketoseemore.” He took his own sip of Eliot’s beer.

Eliot looked at Parker, who in turn looked at Hardison, who stared at Eliot.

“I’m game if you are,” Parker said as she took both their hands. “But I still want to see Sophie’s ass. At some point. It’s only fair.”


End file.
